The 2 Most Essential Greek Words

2 words. 5 letters. The philosopher Whitehead once said that all philosophy is a footnote to Plato. While there are, of course, ideas floating around today beyond the scope of either Plato and his star student Aristotle, a pair of words that they most frequently used still establishes the optimal format for considering almost any idea: μεν (pronounced ‘men’) and δε (pronounced ‘de’). No one word in English translates either of them when paired, but a familiar paired phrase does:

μεν ‘on the one hand’

δε ‘on the other hand’

The ease with which Plato and Aristotle, and all Greek philosophers, accessed these two briefest of words helps account for why their language became the gold standard for balanced philosophic discourse. Μεν and δε are not only the most ubiquitous terms in all Greek philosophy, ideas were seldom formed without them.

Of course, we do use the English phrase equivalents, but, given their cumbersome nature, only occasionally. Even Greek translators tire of repeating these phrases. Thus the habitual, instinctive balance that informs nearly all propositions in Greek philosophy has not survived. And a more argumentitive — more-heat-than-light — debate culture now prevails.

Here is one famous example of balanced proposition formation from the great Stoic teacher Epictetus — the opening line of his Enchiridion:

τῶν ὄντων τὰ μέν ἐστιν ἐφ᾽ ἡμῖν, τὰ δὲ οὐκ ἐφ᾽ ἡμῖν.

Literally this says:

Of the things that be, some, on the one hand, are in the power of us, some, on the other hand, [are] not in the power of us.

The entire foundation of Stoicism is in this line. But Stoicism is primarily a philosophy to be lived not learned. And even if, like Marcus Aurelius, you read extensively in Epictetus, the essential-to-always-make distinction between “what is” and “what is not” in your control will be less available to you in translation than it was to him reading the original Greek.

You can learn most of what is essential about Greek philosophy in translation. But knowing not just that but how they habititually, even instinctively, formed balanced ideas is its own essential lesson.